Nintendo introduce 11pm watershed for Wii U

Here’s a thing. If you’ve bought a Nintendo Wii U and live somewhere in Europe, then you may or may not have discovered that your new console has a watershed.

European Wii U consoles now restrict access to PEGI 18-rated games until after 11pm.

Basically, the Wii U online store won’t let you buy adult games unless you’re awake between 11pm and 3am. If you work nights, tough. Of course, this watershed won’t stop you playing games whenever you feel like it, because that would be commercial suicide for Nintendo.

An email from Nintendo says: “Nintendo has always aimed to offer gameplay experiences suited to all age groups, observing carefully all the relevant regulations regarding content access that are present in the various European countries.”

Other console developers have not said they’ll be joining in with this and, to be honest, it seems incredibly unlikely that they will want to.